This weekend has mostly been spent sat on the sofa. Somebody needs to inform my Fitbit that the Winter Olympics have started and that movement from the sofa will be minimal. The one exception this weekend has been a trip to the gym for a Bodyattack class. While world class athletes were hurling themselves down mountains, I wrestled myself into a sports bra and hauled myself out in the rain to go to the gym.
Very little will tempt me out to the gym when I could very easily stay at home and watch TV, but Bodyattack is one of those few things and so I thought I’d share some love for it.
For those unfamiliar with Bodyattack, it’s a Les Mills class available at a variety of gyms in the UK and across the world. It’s a sports-inspired cardio class that I discovered probably around 2018 or so. There are two class lengths, either a 45 minute or a 55 minute class. Each class comprises of a number of tracks to which there is an official routine. Each track has a slightly different focus and you go from a warm-up track, into a mixed impact track, then through plyometric training, a mat-based bodyweight strength track, a running track, then agility or interval training before a final power peak and then core and a cool down (the full 55 minute class does all the tracks, the 45 minute class only includes some).
The way Les Mills classes work is that a few times a year they launch a new ‘release’, ie, a new tracklist with set routines. Instructors usually teach the new release solidly for a few weeks and then start to mix things up by teaching tracks from whichever releases they feel like. It totally depends on instructor and personal preference, you might get an instructor who teaches a full old release or one who mixes it up.
Each track is generally made up of three ’rounds’ of moves, so you do the same sort of sequence three times, often with the final round getting a bit harder. But each and every move has low impact options if you want to take them, so for example, if you don’t want to burpee, you can jack, if you don’t want to jack you can just tap your feet out etc.
I can’t remember how or why I ended up going to my first class, it was definitely in the run up to my sister’s wedding (the year I lost three stone through a combination of Bodyattack, running and diet) but I fell in love with Bodyattack quickly. All of it is done on an eight count and the instructors are generally one beat ahead and you mirror them so it’s all cued up really well. It feels like dancing, but without the need to be coordinated or graceful. There is possibly nothing better to me than being part of a whole room of people moving in unison.
My first instructor made it so fun. She used to make jokes but worked us hard, she chose just the most fun tracks (hello You Can’t Stop The Beat from Hairspray and Flashlight from Pitch Perfect) and we always had an absolute blast. There’s a camaraderie to Bodyattack where at the end of the power track (the last cardio peak) you end up in a close circle around your instructor chasing the music down with a high knees run at the end of which there is a collective groan, gasp and general survival euphoria. It’s that cult-like feeling that gets me every single time, especially if the last track is my absolute favourite – Take Me To Church.
I went religiously to Bodyattack at least once a week, if not twice, until a job change in 2019 and then the pandemic in 2020 threw my whole routine out of the window. After pandemic recovery and then my gym closing, it’s taken me a while to find the love again. I was taking the odd class here or there but none of them really captured that pre-pandemic vibe for me. I missed having a room full of regulars/semi-regulars, I missed an instructor that made it fun, I missed the fun old-school Bodyattack tracks with fun music.
I switched gym chain the other year after Fitness First closed down basically all the branches I ever frequented. After a bit of trial and error, I’ve finally found a routine and classes at times and in places that work for me and I am thrilled about it. I now go twice a week again, two different gym branches, two different instructors and class lengths, and I am living for it. The Bodyattack bug is back, and hopefully soon my pre-pandemic body will be back too!
